{"id":919765,"date":"2022-01-26T15:16:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T15:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/news\/2022\/01\/26\/advocate-jennifer-williams-appointed-to-investigate-sexual-assault-allegations-against-suspended-mec-albert-fritz\/"},"modified":"2022-01-26T15:16:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T15:16:14","slug":"advocate-jennifer-williams-appointed-to-investigate-sexual-assault-allegations-against-suspended-mec-albert-fritz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/26\/advocate-jennifer-williams-appointed-to-investigate-sexual-assault-allegations-against-suspended-mec-albert-fritz\/","title":{"rendered":"Advocate Jennifer Williams appointed to investigate sexual assault allegations against suspended MEC Albert Fritz"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Cape Town – Advocate Jennifer Williams has been appointed to conduct the investigation related to the sexual assault allegations against Western Cape community safety MEC Albert Fritz.<\/p>\n

The suspended MEC stepped down from his responsibilities as DA provincial leader shortly after provincial Premier Alan Winde announced his immediate suspension.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While Winde had referred to the grounds of suspension as serious allegations, it has emerged that the MEC\u2019s investigation relates to sexual assault complaints by young employees who had worked in his office.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday it was confirmed that the provincial government\u2019s legal services unit has approached the State Attorney, requesting that independent legal counsel be appointed to conduct an external investigation into the veracity of the allegations made against Fritz.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have now received confirmation that Advocate Jennifer Williams has been appointed to conduct the investigation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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MORE ON THIS<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI will communicate the outcome of the investigation and take such steps as may be necessary or appropriate upon its finalisation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have full faith that this investigation will be conducted with the integrity that it deserves,\u201d Winde said.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day the ANC in the province\u2019s Sifiso Mtsweni announced that the party will be laying criminal charges against both Fritz and Winde.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mtsweni argued that the affidavits provided by victims in the case should be in the hands of the police.<\/p>\n

Young employees who had worked in Fritz\u2019s office had apparently come forward to shed light on the allegations which relate to sexual assault of his own staff which dates back to last year.<\/p>\n

Among the employee\u2019s include former intern Mich\u00e9 Solomon, also known as Zephany Nurse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to a media report, four more provincial government officials who were working alongside Fritz have been suspended in connection with the scandal.<\/p>\n

[email protected]<\/p>\n

Political Bureau<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cape Town – Advocate Jennifer Williams has been appointed to conduct the investigation related to the sexual assault allegations against Western Cape community safety MEC Albert Fritz. The suspended MEC stepped down from his responsibilities as DA provincial leader shortly after provincial Premier Alan Winde announced his immediate suspension. While Winde had referred to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-919765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}